Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
Welcome to Family Sunday here.
And we're going to be this morning in Romans chapter one.
If you have your Bibles, turn there with me.
Romans chapter one.
We're going to start in verse number 26 this morning.
And last week we looked at a passage of scripture that's a very
difficult passage of scripture to go through because it essentially
is describing what life is like without Christ, what the world
is like without Christ, what culture is like without Christ.
But I think it's important for us to understand this morning what
it means to have Christ as our Savior and the need for him as our
Savior.
And here in Romans chapter one, Paul is essentially describing
what it's like when God allows people to go after the things that
they want.
And a lot of times we think that that freedom is a good thing.
But what we're seeing here this morning in this passage is that
the freedom that God gives these people to sin and go the path
that they're desiring to go is actually the judgment of God.
God says essentially this, if you want to chase after these things
and not trust in me and my truth, these are going to be the
things that you're going to be living with.
And the outcomes are going to be outcomes that you don't want to
have to deal with in your life.
And ultimately, it's the judgment of God that these folks
are going to face.
And so God gives the person in rebellion over to sin and the sins
that they desire.
And what we're going to see here this morning is the Bible tells
us that they exchanged the truth for a lie in their rebellion.
An individual in rebellion is exchanging the truth of God into
a lie and looking at the lies of this world and thinking that is
their truth.
And so here In Romans, chapter 1, verse 26, it says this.
For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections.
Well, if you're reading this passage of Scripture for the first
time and you're in verse 26, you might say, for what cause?
If he says for this cause, for what cause?
Well, you got to go back a few verses, and you can see in verse
number, well, if you go all the way to verse number 25, it says
who changed the truth into a lie and worship and serve the creature
more than the Creator for what caused the.
The cause of this their rebellion.
The the cause of changing a truth into a lie, verse 23.
And change the glory of the uncorruptible God into the image
made like to the corruptible man.
And so what we can see here in context is that he's saying, because
of these people's decision to reject God, to rebel against God,
to go their own way, this is why God is allowing this to happen.
This is why these things are manifesting themselves in the life
of these people.
And so they exchanged the truth for a lie.
And it says here, because of this, because of their rebellion,
God gave them up unto vile affections.
That word vile there means shameful.
That word affections could also be looked at as passions.
And so essentially what he's saying is this because of their rebellion,
God is allowing them.
He's.
And by the way, anything that we have in our life is allowed by
God because he's all powerful.
And so what we see here is that God allows them or gives them
over to their shameful passions.
What type of passions are we talking about here?
Now, by the way, I do know that this is Family Sunday.
I do understand that sometimes in Scripture we can get to sensitive
topics and sensitive issues.
But I think it is all the more reason why we should speak boldly
about these things in Scripture, because culture is telling
us something completely opposite.
Culture is telling us that what we're about to read here is
not a sin, that it's a good thing, something that we should celebrate.
And here this morning, what I want us to see from Scripture is
this.
This is the truth of God.
This is not Pastor Josh's opinion.
This is not something that I want to profess.
But what the Bible says very clearly is that we must profess the
truth of God in every situation, no matter how difficult
it is, no matter how difficult our culture is pushing against this
truth.
And what we're going to see here this morning is that Paul actually
was pushing against a culture that celebrated this lifestyle.
Now, there's going to be a lot of sins that are listed here in Romans
chapter one.
But very clearly, Paul lists these first sins in a way that basically
describes that this is society without God.
This is what characterizes society without God, within the rebellion
of God.
And it says here that he gave them over to their vile affections.
Really, it's this over to immorality and idolatry.
If you could describe what these vile affections are, it could
be lumped into immorality in many different ways.
We're going to talk about all those different actions of immorality
that the Bible lists clearly here.
Immorality and idolatry.
Now, folks, I'm going to tell you here this morning that our culture
today is defined by immorality and idolatry.
We talked a little bit about this last week, but idolatry is not
just a, a carved wooden idol.
It's not just about having a gold instrument in our house that
maybe we lift up things to.
Idolatry is anything we put before Christ, any item, any, any
person, anything, even ourselves, that is idolatry.
If we put ourselves before Christ, that is idolatry.
If we worship ourselves, that is idolatry.
And so what Paul is saying is this, those who have given themselves
up to this way, and ultimately God has given them up to this way,
will be characterized by these vile affections of immorality and
idolatry.
Then he goes on to list a couple different sins here.
He says this first and foremost, for even their women did
exchange did to change the natural use into that which is against
nature.
Then he goes on to say in verse 27, and likewise also the men
leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust, one
toward another, men working, men with men working that which is
unseemly or indecent, and receiving in themselves that recompense
or payment of their heir which was meat or which was due to them.
So if you don't understand what that's talking about there,
what he is describing is homosexuality and the relationship
between woman and woman and man and man.
And he says a culture that turns their back against God will
be characterized by this lifestyle.
Now, before we get started with this, I, I do want to let you
know that the Bible very clearly teaches that any relationship,
any romantic relationship outside of the bonds of a husband
and wife, man and woman in the bonds of marriage is a sin.
But specifically in this case, he's talking about the sin of homosexuality.
Matthew chapter 19.
If, if you want to look at a passage of scripture to kind of contrast
this passage of scripture or compare this passage of scripture,
Matthew chapter 19, we actually see Jesus describing what
is biblical marriage.
The only romantic relationship that is supposed to happen specifically
in, in the concept of, of sexuality.
And so what we're going to see here is in Matthew chapter 19 is
that Jesus says, hey, you want to know what the definition of marriage
is?
It was defined at the very beginning, and it stayed the same
all the way till now and it will stay the same forever.
In Matthew, chapter 19, verse number four, there is a push to Jesus
about what is marriage, what is divorce, what is life, and what
is how.
How does that work in the grand scheme of their faith?
And Jesus says in Matthew, chapter 19, verse 4, have ye not
read.
What is he referring to?
He's referring to the book of Genesis.
And he says, okay, have you not read in our own scriptures that
he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female?
And he stopped there male and female.
Now, now I know that because of the way our culture is, some of
you might be feeling a little uncomfortable right now because we've
been told that there's more to that, but the Bible clear, clearly
defines is the way that God creates humanity is male and female.
Then he goes further with this.
And he said, Verse 5, for this cause shall a man leave father and
mother and shall cleave to his wife.
Man cleave to wife, and they twain, or those two shall be one
flesh.
He's speaking of marriage.
Wherefore they are no more twain, they're not two anymore, but
one flesh.
What therefore God had joined together, let not man put asunder.
So the Bible very clearly teaches in the book of Genesis, throughout
the Old Testament, into the New Testament, in the preachings
of Jesus, Jesus reiterates what God has already defined, that
marriage and sexuality is between a man and a woman in the
bonds of marriage.
And so when we look at our culture and culture says, hey, do
whatever you want to do.
Have freedom with that, be with whoever that you love.
The Bible says that that is contrary to the teachings of God.
And so what Paul is saying in verse 27 and, and verse 26 is that
one characteristic of a society that is given over to their
own vile affections is that they will have these types of relationships.
It says in verse 26 that the women change the natural use into
that which is against nature.
It that that word against nature, that, that phrase there is
ba.
Basically saying this against growth or, or against fruitfulness.
And, and so what the Bible says very clearly is that it's a
selfish endeavor.
Not about procreation, not about the way that God has designed
it in a natural sense, but it's unnatural.
These types of relationships are unnatural.
They're unbiblical.
And he says, and likewise also the men.
So he doesn't leave out the men.
And by the way, this would have been very controversial for
Paul to preach.
Why?
Because if you know anything about who he's writing to, he's Writing
to people there in Rome.
Okay.
And if any of you have studied Rome and the history of Rome, that
type of relationship, men and men, women and women, it was a very,
very common thing.
It was accepted in the culture and actually celebrated in that culture.
Leaders in that culture would proclaim that this was a good thing
and they would live it out publicly.
And for the sake of tactfulness this morning, for the
sake of who's in the room, I won't go into any specific details
of what would happen, but I would encourage you to look into
that because that helps us understand that Paul is not talking
to a society that agrees with him.
Because that's sometimes the, the misunderstanding here.
Well, Paul is talking to a bunch of people that this would have
been totally understandable.
But, but we're in a society that's much different today.
We, we're living differently.
We're progressive.
The truth is, is that there's nothing progressive about this lifestyle.
The Bible says that this is against the will of God.
This is against the word of God.
And we're basically recycling sins that have been around for so,
so long.
And so what the Bible says very clearly here is that this, these
men working that which is unseemly or indecent and receiving
in themselves that recompense or that payment.
So when individuals live this lifestyle, the Bible says that there
will be a payment which is due to them.
That's at the end of verse 27, receiving in themselves that recompense
or outcome of their heir which was due or which was meat.
And so Paul wrote this to a society that expected this lifestyle
to be happening.
And not only expecting this lifestyle, but really proclaiming
this lifestyle, celebrating this lifestyle.
Now, we live in a world today that not only expects this to happen,
but actually celebrates these sins in many cases, in most cases
within our society.
So what do we do as Christians?
We just accept it, live with it?
Or do we proclaim the truth of God in the world that is so dark?
Now I know that what we can do is in some cases go too far in this
and say, you know what?
I'm going to take judgment into my own hands.
I'm going to start spreading hate against these people.
No, the Bible says very clearly that anyone in these sins,
we treat them with love, grace and respect and truth.
And so here in this case, Paul is not saying for Christians to go
out and be champions against anyone that's living in sin.
All we do is proclaim the truth of God.
We live clearly the truth of God our around those and Become those
Christians who are the salt and light into a lost and dying world.
But then we go further here because he doesn't just stop with
homosexuality, he doesn't just stop with this type of relationship.
He says, hey, there's going to be more sins that are manifested
in the midst of this type of culture Without God.
Verse 28.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,
so, meaning they're forgetting about God, they don't want anything
to do with God.
This type of culture, this godless culture, doesn't want to
know anything about God.
Why?
Because God basically is giving the parameters of what it
means to live a righteous life.
And no one wants to be told what to do.
That that's what he's saying here.
He says they don't want to have the knowledge of God because
the knowledge of God brings what?
Accountability.
And a lot of times people don't come to God because they don't
want accountability.
I mean, you can watch YouTube videos of these.
Because these high level atheists that hate anything to do
with God and someone says to them, hey, if, if God came down and
spoke to you directly, would you believe it's not a lack of evidence?
They say, well, if he spoke to me, I'd probably believe it was a,
it was a, a vision or, or I'm hallucinating or it's an alien.
It's not really God, right?
Because at the heart of it, many people that reject God, it's
not a lack of evidence, it's a lack of desiring accountability within
the bounds of the word of God.
And so what we can see here is that even back in Romans chapter
one, it says that the law of God is written on the hearts of man,
therefore no one has an excuse.
And so what happens is that in our culture we look out into the
world, we see that there's something bigger than us.
We understand that there's a creator, but we turn away from that.
Why?
Because we don't want the accountability.
We don't want to be told what to do.
And at the heart of it, it's pride.
At the heart of it, it's selfishness.
And it's this.
I don't want anyone to tell me what to do.
No one can change me.
And so it says in verse 28, even as they did not like to retain
in their knowledge the things of God, God, then what does he do?
God gave them over to a reprobate mind.
What's a reprobate mind?
That word, reprobate essentially means Empty, worthless,
no value.
So what happens is, is that someone lives in rebellion to God.
If someone rejects God and says, I don't want to think about
God, I don't want to know the things of God, I certainly don't
want to live the things of God, what does God do?
We don't know when this happens.
Okay, this is not my job to say, well, that person is at that
point of being a reprobate.
But ultimately God says here that he gives them over to this worthless,
empty mind.
He gives them over to the lies to do those things which are not
convenient.
Now, that word convenient here doesn't literally mean like a convenience
store.
You go in and out.
He says not convenient basically means this should not be
done.
Essentially what he says is, is he gives them over to the things
that they should not be doing.
Humanity created in the image of God should not be doing these
sins.
This is not the way that God designed it.
This is not the way that God ordained it.
But because of our rebellion, because of our sin, because of our
rejection, he has said, okay, you want that now I'll give you over
to those things, those, those worthless things, those empty things.
And in that, you're going to find the payment.
And the payment is not something that you want.
Ultimately, we know that it's going to be pain and suffering and
hopelessness and ultimately judgment and separation from God.
And so he says, hey, God is going to give them over to their
empty minds, their reprobate minds.
Now, a lot of times what we think about is God is only dealing
with the things that we do.
And certainly he does care about what we do.
He mentions that right here.
But he also cares about how we think.
And that's why we see it there.
It says, reprobate mind.
God is giving them over to their thoughts.
He's giving them over to those emptiness, worldliness, all those
thoughts that we look at and say are contrary to scripture.
God says, okay, you want to think that way, I'll let you think
that way.
And if you think that way, you're going to act this way.
Bible, the Bible very clearly teaches, and I'm going to go through
this many times throughout this year when we're looking at the
book of Romans, that God wants us to think properly about the word
of God so that we believe properly, so that we act properly.
God cares about our minds, he cares about our bodies.
He cares about our actions.
He cares about everything.
What Does Romans chapter 12 say?
We're getting ahead of ourselves.
And, and we'll get to Romans chapter 12, eventually.
But he says, renewing the mind.
What are we doing?
Why?
Why are we renewing our mind?
The Bible says, give your bodies a living sacrifice, your everything,
a living sacrifice.
God doesn't just want your Sunday mornings.
God doesn't just want you when it makes sense.
He wants everything.
He wants your mind, he wants your heart, he wants your body.
He wants everything.
Now there was another teaching called Gnosticism, which basically
said God doesn't care about really your body, just cares about
your mind if you're thinking properly, if you have the right knowledge.
And at the end of the day, God is concerned about what we think
about.
God is concerned about what we do.
And in this case we see that verse 28 tells us that he is giving
them over to that way.
This is not where we want to be, this is not where our culture
needs to be, because this is a godless culture that leads to sin
and brokenness.
And then he goes and he begins to list other sins.
Lest you think that those sins that we listed already are the peak
top sins.
No, he says there's other sins that are characterized in this godless
society.
Verse 29, being filled with all unrighteousness.
Obviously unrighteousness is just the opposite of God's righteousness.
That's talked about earlier on in Romans chapter 1.
The righteousness of God is found in Jesus Christ.
And therefore, what does it mean to be righteous, to be like
Christ, to walk like him, to walk in his word.
But then he says here, hey, what does a reprobate society look
like?
What does a reprobate person look like?
Being filled with all unrighteousness.
And so there's this broad category of sin and rebellion.
But then, then he goes on and he.
And he says here, fornication.
And, and so what is fornication?
You hear that word a lot.
Literally, that word fornication is, the Greek word, is
porneia, which essentially it's any sexual sin outside the bonds
of marriage, okay?
And so it's not just what the sins were listed in verse 26 and
27.
It's any sin that we do with our bodies, with other people, outside
of marriage.
And so he says, hey, the society, the people will be characterized
by fornication, by wickedness, by covetousness.
We know what covetousness is.
Covetousness is I want what that person has, but more than that,
I don't deserve.
I don't think that person deserves what they have, right?
I want what that person has.
And I want it so much that I'm willing to sin to get it.
Covetousness.
Maliciousness.
Maliciousness is.
I'm mad at someone, I hate someone, but I also want something
bad to happen to that person.
You've heard that word malice?
Malice is anger that wants harm to somebody.
So he says the characteristics, characterization
of a person in the reprobate mind would be a heart of malice,
full of envy, murder.
Debate.
Now, by the way, debate is not a sin if you're having a debate.
But really in this case, debating is talking about fighting,
okay?
Fighting with one another, verbally.
Deceit, well, that's lies, a malignity.
That's bad character going on.
Verse 30, backbiters.
That's someone who's slandering someone behind their back.
Hater of God.
Haters of God.
Despiteful.
That means that they're insulting people.
Proud.
They're full of pride.
Boasters, they're bragging.
Inventors of evil things disobedient to parents.
That's why it's family Sunday, right?
We have everyone in here.
So, guys, I'm looking at my kids here, okay?
A lot of times we have what we would consider to be unjustifiable
sins.
And then we have what we would consider within the church.
Now, none of you say amen, but we have justifiable sin sins that
we are comfortable with.
Why?
Because they're so common.
How can that harm anybody?
Now, I do want to be very clear in the eyes of God, sin, one
sin makes me guilty of them all.
Therefore I'm guilty before God.
Therefore I need judgment.
Not every sin has the same outcome in the.
In the sight of God.
Yes, for judgment, yes it does.
But couple of different sins here might have different outcomes
on the worldly sense of things.
And so I'm not saying that all sins are equal in the things that
we have to deal with in our lives, but all sins make us guilty
before God.
And so what we have to do within the church is we can't just
pick and choose the ones that we really hate and then the other
ones that we're really comfortable with.
So, so I'm looking at my kids and the other kids in the room.
We can't say that all these sins are bad, but then disobedient
to parents.
Well, you know what?
I can do that because I have a lot of reason to be disobedient.
Okay?
So.
So what we have to do is we have to look at this and we have
to say, hey, all of these sins are products of a godless society
rejecting God.
So we Go further here, he says, disobedience of parents without
understanding.
What's foolishness?
Foolishness is this.
The Bible actually says this.
The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
So to live a life outside of God is a life of foolishness.
And by the way, it says earlier on in Romans chapter one
that, hey, they profess themselves to be wise, verse 22,
but they became fools.
And so the Bible says that part of society is having a lot of
knowledge, having a lot of worldly wisdom, but living foolishly,
not applying that wisdom to our lives.
And so he says, without understanding, covenant breakers,
without natural affection.
That means they're heartless, without, without love for others,
implacable.
And that's ruthless, unmerciful, not, not characterized
by mercy.
And so we list all these sins here and we say, well, you know what,
what is that all about?
What, what does that mean?
Well, essentially it means this.
We as Christians have an opportunity to proclaim the truth
against sin in the world and within the church.
Now we're going back and, and I believe I missed one of those sins.
At the end of verse 29, it says, whisperers.
Does that mean that when you whisper in church, you're sinning?
When you're trying to tell someone, hey, what are we eating
for lunch today?
No, that doesn't mean that you're sinning.
That idea of whispering is gossip, talking negatively about
somebody, or you either lying about someone behind their back or
you're saying something truthful about someone behind their
back, but it's not something that's beneficial to them.
It's not edifying to them.
So talking about justifiable sins, hey, we even justify some of
those sins with, like, spiritual ways.
Hey, look, guys, have you heard about so and so in the church?
I mean, they're really struggling with this.
Let's, let's, let's pray for them.
Look, the idea is this.
We should pray for people.
But when we are using opportunities of other people's sins
and other people's failures as proclaiming their flaws around other
people, that gets to a place where we can get very dangerously
in that place of gossip, in that place of whispering.
And so we go through all these sins and, and I would caution you
to look at these sins and not just say, well, I struggle with this
one, but not this one.
Look at them from across the board from, from the very beginning.
So from the sins that we saw in verse 26 and verse 27 with homosexuality
to the sin there, and, and starting in, in verse number 29 with
unrighteousness fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness,
envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters,
haters of God despiteful, proud, boasters and inventor of evil
things disobedient to parents, foolishness without understanding,
covenant breakers without natural affection, ruthlessness,
implacable, unmerciful.
All of these things we need to say, you know what?
None of that should stand in our midst.
We should never celebrate any of this.
We should never condone any of this.
We should never turn a blind eye to any of this.
We, we should never wink towards any of these sins.
Now, for some of us within the church, I, I know because I'm guilty
of this.
I am very strong on some of these sins, specifically the ones
that were listed first, right?
Because we say, hey, you know what?
I can't believe that person's living that lifestyle, that sin is
an abomination.
So therefore we're just going to turn our backs against them.
Now, by the way, that's not the immediate reaction of someone
who's living in sin.
What's the best way to deal with someone who's living in sin?
Tell them the truth.
What is going to change their hearts.
What is going to change an individual's heart when it comes
to their life?
Well, if I just reject them and shun them.
No.
What is going to change an individual's heart to the point of
transformation is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The only answer to any of the problems in Romans chapter one is
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And that's what Paul is trying to explain here.
How do we know that?
Go back to verse number 16.
What's the whole point?
What got him on this whole tangent?
By the way?
Paul got on tangents a lot.
Now, it was Holy Spirit tangents, okay?
He allowed them to go on those tangents.
But what do we see here?
He says, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe
it.
To the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from
faith to faith.
As it is written, the just shall live by faith.
And so we want to see society change to righteousness.
If we want to see society turn their backs against these sins that
are listed here.
We don't say, hey, let them go.
It's God's job to let them go.
That's not our job.
Our job is to proclaim the gospel.
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We want to see Delaware Change.
If we want to see the United States change.
If we want to see the world change, we need to profess and proclaim
and champion the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Hate is not going to change this, okay?
It's not our job to hate somebody.
Now, you've heard the statement, hate the sin and not the
sinner, right?
You understand the context with that?
So we're not supposed to accept the sin, but we also are to
look to that sinner and say, hey, you know what?
The only thing that's going to change your life is the truth of
Jesus Christ.
And when we look at this, we see that the problem in verse 32
is this.
Look, look at it here with me.
In verse 32 of Romans, of Romans, chapter 1, it says that these
people who are living in rebellion, it says, who, knowing
the judgment of God, Knowing the judgment of God.
Now, I, I, I don't know exactly if every single person understands
the full implication of what the judgment of God really is, but
what we do know is that many people are fighting against the conviction
of God.
They're fighting against the truth of God.
And so it says, who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which
commit such things are worthy of death?
So Paul says, you know, as Christians, that what a person deserves
in their sin is death.
For the wages of sin is death.
We all need to kind of take a minute and understand that because
all of us to some degree, have been characterized by some of these
things in our life.
Before Christ.
Before Christ, you would say, well, I've never been an adulterer,
pastor.
I never would do that.
What did Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount?
He says, not only do you sin with what you do, but you sin with
what you think.
So if we're guilty, if we're, we're all guilty before the eyes
of God, before salvation, we are all guilty before the eyes of
God.
Then we come to Christ and then we escape that judgment.
That's what Paul's already been talking about.
He says, we escape the judgment of God, and now we have
the righteousness of God.
Now we have the salvation.
So we have to understand that all of us, all of us in this room,
if you have a pulse, if you're breathing, okay, you are either in
two camps.
You're either a sinner that has not been saved by grace, or you're
someone who has had sin in your life and you have been saved
by grace, okay?
And the idea for that this morning is this.
Sometimes we can get on our spiritual high horse and say, you
know, What, I'm saved and I'm better?
The truth is that the only reason why we have any good standing
before God is because of the grace of Jesus Christ and the blood
of Jesus Christ.
And so what we have to understand this morning is that we
don't look at Romans chapter one and go, these degenerates.
And they're never going to get right.
Ultimately, what we have to understand as Christians is that,
yes, God will give them over to a reprobate mind, but that is,
that is not our job.
It doesn't say, Christians give them over to reprobate minds.
Our job is to say we need to go and we need to proclaim and we
need to love in the truth of God.
And by the way, I need.
I need to explain love today.
Today, because we're.
We're in a society today that love means this.
First of all, love is always tied to romanticism.
In our society today, that's not the biblical definition of Christian
love.
Agape love, okay?
Agape is sacrificial love that has nothing to do with romance.
There's another whole term in the Bible for that, okay?
And by the way, romantic love is a good thing inside the bonds
of marriage between a man and a woman.
God created that.
But you see what Satan does, over throughout all of history, what
Satan does is he takes what God has created as good and he twists
it and he perverts it to something evil.
So, so when we're talking about love, okay, we have different
types of love in the Bible.
There's brotherly love, there's romantic love, and there's
agape love.
That's that sacrificial love.
So in the case of romantic love, what the Bible says is that
there is a beautiful thing in that, and that is between a man and
a woman in marriage, okay?
But what Satan does is he says, okay, God, you've created that.
But now I want to twist that.
And I want everything else outside of that to be really what
the world is preaching love is all about.
The Bible says that that is what Satan does.
He's not a creator, he's a distorter.
He is a twister.
He's a deceiver.
Think about everything good that God has created.
Satan has tried to twist it and move it away from the truth of
God.
And so what we can see here is there's that romantic love, but we
also know that there is the agape love that we all talk about
in scripture.
And that's the type of love we're to have to those around us.
Agape love does not mean that I celebrate everybody's sin.
Agape love does not mean that I accept everybody's sin.
Agape love means I'm going to sacrifice for that person, even if
they don't bring anything back to me.
So if I love someone enough, what am I gonna do?
Not accept their wrong, but help them in their wrong right.
Because I use this example of my children.
If my children are going down the wrong path, I don't look at them
and go, well, I love them so much, I'm just gonna let them keep
going down that path of sin and destruction.
No, I'm doing everything I possibly can to tell them the truth
in love so that I can protect them from that.
It's the same type of love that we're supposed to have for our
society.
It's loving them, but loving them enough to tell them the truth
about the truth of God.
And so what we have to understand is that in our society
today, you are not a bigot, you are not evil.
If you look at a type of lifestyle and say, that is a wrong
lifestyle.
I can love that person and I can show that person grace, and I
can show that person forgiveness, and I can show that
person all of these things.
But I cannot look at that element of sin, whatever sin that
might be, and say, I celebrate that.
I exalt that sin.
Because at the heart of that is pride.
The heart of that is we all want to be told that we're doing
the right thing, even if we're not doing the right thing.
I had a conversation in our Bible study this morning.
There's enough information out there on the Internet today that
you can find anyone who believes the same thing as you.
You can find a Christian who talks about your sin and celebrates
that sin.
So all of us in our flesh want someone to proclaim that sin that
we're doing as okay, that's our flesh.
Now, the Spirit tells us opposite of that.
But what I'm saying here this morning is that what we have to understand
is that the celebration of sin is.
Is wrong for the church.
It's destructive for the church.
Look at it there with me in verse 32, who, knowing the judgment
of God.
So, meaning this, Christians understand the judgment of God, understand
that we all deserve that judgment, that they which commit
such things are worthy of death, not only do the same.
Meaning this, he says, these people that are facing judgment,
not only do they join in with these sins, they're characterized
by these sins, but here it is, but have pleasure in them.
That do them, meaning this.
A person who is in sin is guilty, but also they're guilty because
it says that they have pleasure in them.
That do them, meaning basically this.
They're approving and celebrating that sin in that society.
And so what I.
I caution us as the church this morning is this.
There is a.
What we would say maybe is a fine line or a clear line, whatever
you want to call it.
There's a line between being in the world and understanding the
world that we live in and understanding the things that we're
fighting against and then supporting it, loving it, and condoning
it, and approving it.
Okay, I can understand that an unsaved person is going to act like
an unsaved person because we all have to understand that an unsaved
person is not going to act like a Christian.
But at the same time, I don't need to look at that person and say,
well, they must be a good person because they're acting like
their nature.
So I'm just going to let it go.
What we have to do is we have to proclaim the truth of God to them
time.
We have to demonstrate the truth of God because the Bible says
that we are to live our lives as Christians, not only by word,
but by deed as well.
And to reach people for the cause of the gospel means to teach
the gospel, to preach the gospel, but also to live the gospel.
And so what we can see all of verse 26, and actually before verse
26, really, verse 23 and on, we can see that this is a characteristic
of a society, a characteristic of a group of people, a characteristic
of an individual that abandons the truth of God.
If our country, if our culture, if.
If our family, if our church abandons the word of God, this is
the product of that.
And what we can see here is that the only thing that's going
to change the hearts of man is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
and the transformative power that the Holy Spirit has in our life.
And then the Holy Spirit leads us to all truth.
And all truth is found in the Word of God.
Sanctify them by thy truth.
That word is truth.
And what we do is this.
If I'm living guided by the Spirit, I'm living guided by the
Word.
And so if the Word of God says something clearly, I obey that and
I trust in that.
Even if I don't understand it, even if I don't even in my flesh
agree with it, I have to say, you know what?
This is what the Word of God says.
If the Holy Spirit is leading me into truth.
The truth is the word of God.
Therefore, the word of God is my guide.
If this is just a good book, if this is just one of the many books
that you adhere to in your life, what we can do is we can say,
you know what?
I don't have another book.
Let's say this little pamphlet here is another book.
I like this book more than this book in this area, so I'm going
to go with this one, okay?
Or this book is good, but you have to add this book onto this book
to make it make sense, folks.
All we need is the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the word of God.
That's it.
And so when we talk about things in our culture that are hard
to talk about, so, for example, homosexuality, okay, we're
talking about the gender identity crisis that we live in in
our world today, orientation, whatever it is.
And sometimes we pick on those sins, but those are sins that are
very public, and so it's okay to talk about those.
There's other sins, though, like, for example, gossip, deceit,
inventors of evil things, backbiters, pride.
Okay, we.
We could sit here and talk about any of these sins.
What we do is we don't say, well, culture tells us this.
So, so we, we've got to figure out how to fit the Bible into the
culture and the culture into the Bible and kind of make it make
sense.
No, folks, that's not what it's all about.
What it's all about is saying, how does the Bible affect my heart
in this society?
And the Bible doesn't change.
The Bible says that it's.
It's everlasting.
And so, like, I think so many times in my life, it was this.
I heard this before, and I even to some degree bought into it
for a little bit.
It's like, well, all these things in the Bible are older.
And so we live in a different culture today, and we have to kind
of reach our culture in the way that the culture needs to be
reached, folks.
By the way, yes, the Roman culture, I mean, I don't think they
had iPhones back then.
I mean, most of us would agree to that.
Some people believe in, like, ancient tech and all that.
We're not going to get down that rabbit trail.
They probably didn't have cars, they probably didn't have Internet.
But the truth is, is they had all the same things when it came
to their culture.
Whether it be sin or rebellion, it's because it's human
nature.
It's been from the very beginning.
So the things that are taught in scripture are not about, like,
well, you know what, in the, in Roman time, that made sense.
Or, or in the time of the, the Jewish people there in Israel 2,000
years ago, they made sense.
No, it makes sense for us today.
The principles are the same across the board.
So when we get to the idea of marriage, what does Jesus say about
marriage?
The Bible tells us.
What does the Bible say about marriage?
Very clearly.
And so when we get to this place here, what we have to understand
is that when we abandon the truth of God, when we even allow
any concession to compromising the word of God, that's when we get
into a society that allows to get drifted.
And now we see the silliness of, you know what?
I was having a conversation with someone recently and they said
that, you know what?
20 years ago or 30 years ago, I would have never dreamed that we
would be dealing with the things that we're dealing with today.
Some of you could, could echo that.
Some of you in this room that, that, you know, you were around for
a long, long time, you would say back then it got mentioned, but
this isn't, this isn't the America that I know.
This isn't the culture that I know.
Why is it that way?
An abandonment of truth.
Now, let's look around the room this morning.
Let's look.
How many, how many young people do we have in the room?
Got quite a few.
Now, if there is not revival, if culture continues to abandon the
truth of God, just imagine with me for a moment the things that
our children and our grandchildren, for some of us, our
great grandchildren are going to be dealing with in 20, 30, 40
years if we don't get back to the word of God.
Now, some people say this, and I understand this to a point.
Pastor, we're the church.
And what's going on the outside, we can't affect to some
degree.
I understand that thinking, because the truth is, is that an
unsaved person is going to act like an unsaved person.
But the Bible clearly says that Christians infiltrate their
society, Christians change their society.
In the Book of Acts, it said that that small group of men that
follow Jesus, they.
They what?
They turn the world upside down.
Now, if 11 guys and eventually 12 guys could change the world and,
and turn the world upside down, how much could millions of
Christians stand up for the cause of the gospel and see a great
revival happen in our country?
Now, the Bible does say this.
The Bible does say that things will get worse and worse as the end
times Begin to progress and to degress.
But the truth is, is that we don't have to allow that to happen.
And what happens sometimes in our culture today is that we allow
the world, instead of the church impacting the world for the
cause of the gospel, we allow the world to impact the church.
And so that the church becomes more and more like the world than
the world is becoming more like the church.
And what we have to do as a Christian, we have to say this.
Yes, we're fighting what we would consider an uphill battle with
human odds, right?
With human odds.
We look out of the world today and we go, it doesn't make sense.
How can we impact this?
How can we change the laws?
And I'm not saying that we have to get out and every one of
you have to be a politician, okay?
Because it doesn't matter what the politics will say, okay?
Because back in Rome, by the way, did, did, did, did Emperor Nero
like, support Paul with this?
No.
Did Emperor Nero ever change his mind?
No.
If you know history, Nero, the emperor in Paul's time, did not change
his ways, actually got really bad.
And eventually we know that Paul was martyred for his way.
And Paul's just one example of this.
So what I would say is this.
Can Christians impact politics?
Sure.
But we don't rely on the politics to be the change in this
world.
We are the Christians.
We are the church.
We progress, we profess.
It's our job, no matter what the society is telling us.
So let's say, for example, we celebrate the freedoms that we have
as Americans.
Amen.
I'm thankful for the freedoms that we have as Americans.
And.
But sometimes we tie those freedoms that we have as Americans
to the freedoms that we have as Christians.
But let's say, for example, let's say God forbid this, but let's
say in America, for whatever reason, our freedoms got taken away.
And by the way, our freedoms aren't free.
And if there's not sacrifice within our country, we know that
those freedoms could be taken away.
So let's say, for example, today, never want this to happen.
But let's say America loses religious freedom, does that mean
that we as Christians go, well, we're done?
Or does that mean that we just press forward and say, hey, you know
what?
We're going to be like the early church.
We're going to profess the word of God no matter what.
And actually, what we see in the New Testament is that the more
persecution that actually happened, the more spread of the
gospel actually happen.
And so sometimes it is good for us to lose our comfort so that
we can get busy for the cause of the gospel.
Now, why am I saying this?
Because we all know the society that we live in.
You live in a society that celebrates all of these sins.
Celebrates it.
Turn on your tv.
Get.
Get on Netflix.
Get.
Get on anything.
Get on YouTube.
You.
You can't go five minutes without having these sins amplified
in your face.
This.
This whole month, you're going to have it amplified in your face.
And the truth is, is that we could sit here and go, well, that's
just separate.
That's not our thing.
What we have to do is we have to say, how do we biblically think
about this?
How do we biblically deal with this?
How do we share the truth of God to people around us?
And we share it this way.
It boils down to this.
A society without Christ lives with these things.
A society with Christ lives in.
In faith.
By the way, I'm not talking about cultural Christianity saying
an individual that has faith in Jesus Christ is not characterized
by these sins.
Now, I'm not saying that an individual that has Jesus in his
life, that has the Holy Spirit indwelling them, can't do these sins.
What I'm saying is they are not characterized by these sins.
So therefore, if we fall into sin, what do we do?
Well, first John, chapter one, verse nine says, if we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
But the beauty is, is that we have a walk with Jesus Christ.
And that conviction of the Spirit turns us back to the truth
of God.
And what we can see in contrast to that is these people
in Romans chapter one who are living without God have no conviction
because they've been turned over to their reprobate minds.
And so the place we do not want to be is the place where we're
not convicted over these sins anymore.
There's a word that maybe you've heard, it's called desensitized.
When our culture becomes desensitized to these sins, we cannot
be effective Christians.
I was reading a commentary recently, and some of you know who
Charles Spurgeon is.
You know Charles Spurgeon, Prince of Preachers.
I love Charles Spurgeon sermons.
I read a lot, enjoy his.
His writings.
Did you know that I was reading a commentary that said that
Charles Spurgeon would not even read Romans chapter one and
in mixed company in his church because he felt like it was too repulsive
and he would tell the People read this at home.
I'll tell you some of the principles, but this is just too,
too repulsive in our society.
How can that be?
We.
Well, come on, come on, Charles.
What's going on?
Why couldn't you read this?
Now?
We're able to read this today and not even cringe.
Why?
Because this is so common for us.
So, so what am I saying here?
Don't get desensitized to, to these sins here, because it's something
that's the norm.
We should still be repulsed by sin.
We should still look at it and go, no, I.
I don't.
I don't want that in my life.
I don't want my children to just grow up designed and aligned
to this way of thinking.
Folks there, whether you believe it or not, there's brainwashing
going on in this world.
Brainwashing.
Right.
We would all say that.
Propaganda.
What is the propaganda from the ways of this world?
The propaganda from the ways of this world is live this way, celebrate
this way, live in a rejection to God.
And some people say, well, Pastor Josh, you're just brainwashing
your children to the things of God.
You know what?
Unapologetically, I'm confessing this morning, yes, my
children's brain needs to be washed every single day, just like
mine.
Okay?
I need my brain washed in the goodness and the truth of Jesus Christ
and not the things of this world.
Why?
Because the enemy is trying to take our minds and take them to the
place of sin.
And what we need to do as Christians is we need to not just
our children, but our.
Our adults and our families alike.
We need to be thinking upon the things of God, dwelling upon
the things of God and saying, no, son, daughter, I know you're
going to hear this at school.
Some of you already have had kids that have come back and said,
mom, dad, what's this all about?
Some of you have been walking through the mall, and your children
have noticed something, and they've said, hey, what's.
What is that?
What is this thing?
And we can say, well, that's just the way everyone does things
these days.
Or we can say, hey, look, this is what the Bible says about this.
We love them, we don't hate them, we don't reject them in violence.
But what do we do?
We come to the truth of God and we say we love them, and we point
them to what we believe.
And, folks, if we truly believe it, we'll live it.
And if we live it, it will impact those around us.
And so Paul says, society without Jesus.
A life without Jesus will be turned over to the reprobate minds.
A society with Christ will be changed, will be renewed.
We'll have hope, we'll have grace, we'll have love.
And all the opposites of these things.
What Satan does, again we've mentioned this, he twists things.
And so what we need to do is we need to make sure that our minds
are fixed on the things of God and not on the things of this earth.
So when we conclude here this morning in Romans Chapter one, we
see that Paul says, hey, look, it's the Gospel of Jesus Christ that
changes lives.
Without the gospel, this is the product.
Without the righteousness is unrighteousness, without the justification.
What is justification?
The declaration of our righteousness before God because
of what Jesus Christ did for us.
And our faith in him without justification is judgment.
And so we have unrighteousness, righteousness, judgment,
justification.
And I don't know about you, but where I want to be is I want
to be on the side of justification.
I want to be on the side of righteousness.
I want to be on the side of Christ.
Because I've read the rest of the book, some of you have too.
Jesus is the victor.
Victory in Jesus.
You know what?
I want to be on that side.
I want to be, as Romans 8 says, more than conquerors in Jesus
Christ, folks, we are not defeated.
Sometimes we are living like a defeated Christian, but we have a
foe, the enemy, Satan, who is defeated.
And so the Bible says that we don't need to be living undefeated,
okay?
Because the truth is this.
You're not going to win every battle on this planet.
This is the reality of things.
We're, We're.
You're going to go through your ups and downs.
Some of us can say, pastor, you know, you don't know me before
my, my Christian years, my BC years, My BC years were pretty rough,
Okay, I get that.
But the truth is, is that all of us, though we might not win every
little battle along the way, the war is won in Jesus Christ.
And so this morning, when we look at Romans Chapter one, that's
not saying, hey, this is the way things are.
Just adhere to that, be in that, address it, accept it, approve,
proclaim it.
No, what he's saying is this, this is life without Christ.
All the more reason why you need Christ.
All the more reason why you need to proclaim Christ and win people
to the cause of the gospel.
It started with, for I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.
And so sometimes these things that we're facing in our life allow
us to get to that place of fear and shame that we don't want
to proclaim this, but we as Christians have to say this.
We have the truth of God.
If you don't believe that this is the truth of God, then what is
truth?
Well, we live in a society today that says truth is what you
want it to be.
But if my truth and your truth contradict, what happens?
Let's say I bring someone up here this morning and I said, hey,
you know, this is my truth.
This is his truth.
Totally two different things.
What's true?
Well, it's more true if I'm louder than him sometimes.
That's how we look at it.
My, my truth is more truth because I'm stronger than him.
I can just cover his mouth.
We must believe, just logically speaking, we must believe
that if there is truth, there must be one truth and the one truth.
If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you must believe that the
one truth is found in the word of God, and the word of God is the
truth and ultimately summarized in Jesus Christ.
Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the light.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
And so for us to say, you know what, they can do their thing, we're
going to do our thing.
Christianity is just our way of doing things, but their way of
doing things could be just as valid.
What we have to say is this.
If I'm going to be consistent with what I believe about Christ,
if I'm going to be consistent about following him, what did Jesus
say?
Jesus didn't say there was many ways.
If I believe Jesus and I believe that he is God, and I believe
that he is truthful, I believe Jesus never sinned.
Then we have to adhere to what Jesus taught.
And what did Jesus teach?
Oh, there's many ways.
No, Jesus said there's one way.
So therefore, if I believe everything about Jesus, Jesus is
either a liar, right?
Because he says, hey, there's one way.
But if he's not right, then he's a liar and that means he sinned.
Or Jesus might just be delusional, right?
Some people say, well, Jesus thought he was the Messiah.
So either Jesus is lying to us, he's delusional, or he is the
Son of God, he is the truth of God, he is everything, and we must
trust in him.
And so Jesus's way is the only way.
And Jesus way says, hey, these are the sins that we don't want to
be characterized as Christians by, and ultimately our society Though
broken, though mismistaken, though though evil and dirty and
rotten, can be impacted for the cause of the gospel.
Some of you might be saying this, Pastor, without Jesus, I would
be on that path.
Without Jesus, I was characterized by those sins.
Without Jesus, I was on my way to what Romans 1 said was judgment,
death and separation.
But because of Jesus, because of God, who is rich in mercy, he
extended that gift of grace and trusted that gift of grace.
Because of that gift of grace this morning, I know I'm not characterized
by those list of sins there.
Romans, chapter one.
I'm characterized by the truth of Jesus Christ and my salvation
for him.
That's awesome.
That's amazing.
That's why we do what we do.
That's why we wake up every day.
Because there's hope in Jesus Christ.
There's victory in Jesus Christ.
But last challenge here today is this.
If we as a church have that truth, if we as a church have that
amazing truth of the gospel in our midst, and we are living by that,
Never, never should we concede to the world that, hey, you know
what?
They're going to define what we do within the church.
Lot of churches have done that over the years.
A lot of churches have said because of culture, we need to adapt
and we need to allow and we need to move to a place that's more
palatable for our society.
And what happens is, is that the truth gets degraded from the
inside out, and then there is no more truth.
And we see weakness in the cause of the gospel.
But we as a church must stand upon the truth of God.
It's not about being a Baptist.
It's not about being any denomination.
It's about being a biblical Christian, following in faith in
Jesus Christ.
May we stand bold.
My prayer is that we understand the battle that's against
us.
We have a society that's trying to tear down, tear down the
biblical church.
You might not understand that because why we're trying to go from
the inside out.
Some societies have tried to just tear down the church from the
outside, burn the Bibles, persecute from the outside.
And you know what?
There's other tactics.
So the enemy uses other tactics.
And what he tries to do in many cases is he tries to come in
and the Bible actually talks about this wolves and sheep's clothing
coming in and infiltrating the church and coming in the middle of
it and then eventually eroding it from the inside out.
May we be on guard for that.
No one's life's perfect, but There's a standard of truth, and
that's what we're all striving for, is understanding God, understanding
Jesus through his Word.
So this morning, I encourage you to think about that.
It's not an easy passage to go through, because our society, and
in many cases, maybe some people in the room have said, you
know what?
I, I, I feel offensed by that.
Folks, I love you, and I don't ever want to offend you, but sometimes
the truth is, is that the truth does offend.
The truth does hurt.
You know, know, recently I had an opportunity to, to go with some
folks and, you know, what's the word for it?
Inspect your life.
Have a time of evaluation.
Anytime you evaluate yourself, you want everyone to say, like, good
things about you.
But what happens when you evaluate yourself and you start realizing,
hey, there's some, there's some inadequacies in my life.
Well, no one wants to hear that.
And someone might be telling me the truth and saying, pastor Josh,
we love you, but here's an area that you might need to work
on.
What, what would I need to do with that?
I don't want to hear that.
No, no, no.
Because that truth that might be a truth has offended me.
But is it still truth?
Yeah, it's still true.
And so we as a church must proclaim the truth of God in love.
And even if it doesn't, we don't want to offend by our sin.
But if we offend by the truth, that's okay.
God will sort that out.
So here this morning, I want us to think about how we as a church
can stand firmly upon the truth of God, can stand firmly upon
the wisdom of not man, but the Lord and, and take these things into
our society and proclaim them to the world.
So this morning, children, adults, teens, whatever age you're
at, whatever spectrum you're on when it comes to your understanding
of the things of this world and the things of God, just know
if I can leave you with anything.
This is the word of God.
Define everything by this.
What does the Bible say?
Not what I feel.
Not what someone tells me, not what someone tries to convince me
of in this world.
Because you know what?
Those people that are showing you those videos and movies and,
and selling you things online, all they want is your dollar.
All they want is your eyes to watch and be another viewer.
Folks, God doesn't just want your money.
God wants your heart.
God's concerned about your soul.
God's concerned about your eternal destination.
That's the one you want to trust.
That's the one you want to believe in.
That's the one who is only, only one who's trustworthy.
So this morning, if everyone could stand with me, every head bowed,
every eye closed as the music plays this morning, we're just going
to have an opportunity to respond.
Not, not a long invitation this morning, but what I do want
to tell you is this.
Number one, have you trusted in Jesus Christ as your personal
savior?
Are you in those B.C.
years, are you in those after salvation years?
If you haven't come to Jesus Christ as your personal savior this
morning, the Bible says that it is for by grace are we saved.
God's grace that we are saved through faith and that not of ourselves.
It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
So the Bible says this morning, it's not about working your
way, it's not about earning your way, it's about coming to him
in faith.
And so folks, stop trying and start believing in Jesus Christ.
If you need that this morning, come forward, trust in Jesus as your
savior.
But number two, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ this morning,
but you have been struggling with these ideas of culture and boldness
and not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, hey, you
know what?
This morning, come forward, commit yourself to the Lord, say,
lord, I know what your word says and I want to live by that.
Maybe you just want to come forward this morning and pray for
your children.
In this world of brokenness, in this world of deceit, in this
world of darkness, maybe you just want to pray for your children
and say, lord, protect my children, protect my grandchildren,
allow them to have the same values that I have in accordance
to the word of God, help no one to come in and try to steal away
their joy, steal away their love for God, steal away their, their
innocence.
Now you say innocence.
I thought none of us were innocent.
True.
But the truth is, is that many times the world is trying to offend
children a lot earlier than they should be.
Some of us are going to go through brokenness in our life, but
really there are children in this world that are going through
brokenness way too early because the world is exposing sin
and evil to them.
And so what we need to do is pray for our children, not that they'll
never go through hardships, but that they can keep their eyes
fixed on the word of God in the midst of those difficulty needs.
And we as adults can lead them in the truth by what we say and by
what we do.
And so if you want to come forward this morning and just pray
for your children, pray for your spouse, pray for yourself, pray
for all of those issues in life.
Hey, come forward this morning.
You have the opportunity to do so.
Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation working hearts
and lives.
Give us the opportunity to see the truth of God in our lives.
Help us to proclaim those truths of God in our life and help
us to live that clarity and that that truth and confidence in
you.
Lord, I pray that you'd be in this high invitation in Jesus name.
Amen.
Some have already come.
Follow as the Lord leads here this morning.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
You would like to find out more.
Information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at
middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro, middletownbaptistChurch.com
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Thank you so much.
God bless.
Have a wonderful day.